Fence Spurs Fight

Court To Hear Ownership Case

FORT LAUDERDALE — A dispute about a fence brewing between the city and the resident who built it is scheduled to be heard in Broward County Circuit Court on Feb. 12.

The case revolves around a 6-foot-high, 12-foot-long fence built across an alley on Northeast 18th Street just north of Hugh Taylor Birch State Recreation Area and Sunrise Boulevard along State Road A1A. It was built by Stephen Nagy, who owns the adjacent property and says he put the fence in to deter crime.

The fence has angered neighbors who have been using the alley as a shortcut to the beach for more than 30 years.

And it has angered the city, which says Nagy has no right to the property or the fence.

Feelings about the matter are raw on all sides.

Neighbors claim Nagy threatened Clay Parker, a city code enforcement officer, by raising a hammer as if to hit Parker during a Jan. 10 argument between the two men. Parker agrees with their account, said Bud Bentley, assistant city manager, to whom Parker reported the incident.

The neighbors say Nagy's wife, Debbie, defused the matter by pushing her husband out of the way.

Steve and Debbie Nagy say that account is inaccurate, although Steve Nagy refused to elaborate.

``There was no hammer in my husband's hands, no assault,'' Debbie Nagy said, adding that she did not push her husband.

The Nagys say the city and the neighbors are making up the story to shore up a weak court case.

The alley is a 500-foot-long sliver of land bordered by A1A on the east, the Shore Club condominium on the north, Northeast 33rd Street on the west, and private residences to the south. At its widest point intersecting A1A, the alley is 20 feet wide tapering to about 12 feet at Northeast 33rd Street and eventually coming to a point a little farther west. It is not open to vehicle traffic.

Bentley said the alley might have resulted from an oversight when the land was platted in 1923.

``We don't know who owns it,'' Bentley said.

Nagy conducted a title search of the property, found relatives of the original developer and had them sign quit claim deeds. He is seeking to have the court recognize him as the legal owner.

The city is challenging Nagy's ownership saying that the alley has always been used as a public right-of-way and it should remain open for public use. It is a ``prescriptive'' easement because it has been used as a right-of-way for more than 20 years, Bentley said.

The city hopes to prove at the Feb. 12 hearing that the public, not Nagy, has rights to the property. The neighbors say the reason Nagy has closed the alleyway is because he wants to buy an empty lot at the east end of the alleyway along A1A. Nagy's ocean view, they point out, relies on the lot remaining empty and he has made an offer to buy it from the city for $100,000.

The city refused, saying that by law the property must go to public auction. It is scheduled to be auctioned April 4.

The court recently turned down the city's request to have the fence torn down.

The judge said the city had not proven it had a right to the property.